A survey of recent results about profinite groups, and results about infinite and finite groups where the theory of profinite groups plays a leading role.
In this paper we investigate some properties of the Burnside ring of a profinite group as defined in \cite{ds}. We introduce the notion of the crossed Burnside ring of a profinite FC-group, and generalise some results from finite to profinite (FC-)groups. In our investigations, we also obtain results on profinite FC-groups which may be of independent interest.
We study homological approximations of the profinite completion of a limit group (see Thm.~A) and obtain the analogous of Bridson and Howie's Theorem for the profinite completion of a non-abelian limit group (see Thm.~B).
We show that every closed normal subgroup of infinite index in a profinite surface group $Γ$ is contained in a semi-free profinite normal subgroup of $Γ$. This answers a question of Bary-Soroker, Stevenson, and Zalesskii.
Finitely generated (non-abelian) free metabelian pro-p groups, and wreath products of f.g. free abelian pro-p groups, are all finitely axiomatizable in the class of all profinite groups.
The article deals with profinite groups in which the centralizers are abelian (CA-groups), that is, with profinite commutativity-transitive groups. It is shown that such groups are virtually pronilpotent. More precisely, let G be a profinite CA-group. It is shown that G has a normal open subgroup N which is either abelian or pro-p. Further, a rather detailed information about the finite quotient G/N is obtained.
We present two uncountable families of finitely generated residually finite groups all having the same profinite completion. One consists of soluble groups, the other of branch groups.
In this article we calculate the profinite genus of the fundamental group of a $n$-dimensional compact flat manifold $X$ with holonomy group of prime order. As consequence, we prove that if $n\leq 21$, then $X$ is determined among all $n$-dimensional compact flat manifolds by the profinite completion of its fundamental group. Furthermore, we characterize the isomorphism class of profinite completion of the fundamental group of $X$ in terms of the representation genus of its holonomy group.
The article deals with profinite groups in which the centralizers are pronilpotent (CN-groups). It is shown that such groups are virtually pronilpotent. More precisely, let G be a profinite CN-group, and let F be the maximal normal pronilpotent subgroup of G. It is shown that F is open and the structure of the finite quotient G/F is described in detail.
We construct a correspondence between the cohomology groups of a group $G$ relative to a family of subgroups $\famS$ and the classes of `relative extensions' of $G$ by abelian groups, modulo a certain equivalence relation. We establish this correspondence for both discrete and profinite group pairs. We go on to discuss the relationships of profinite group pairs of cohomological dimension one with free products and projective group pairs.
We prove that a profinite group $G$ with positive rank gradient does not satisfy a group law. In the case when $G$ is a pro-$p$ group we show that $G$ contains a nonabelian dense free subgroup.
A group G has restricted centralizers if for each g in G the centralizer C_G(g) either is finite or has finite index in G. A theorem of Shalev states that a profinite group with restricted centralizers is abelian-by-finite. In the present article we handle profinite groups with restricted centralizers of word-values. We show that if w is a multilinear commutator word and G a profinite group with restricted centralizers of w-values, then the verbal subgroup w(G) is abelian-by-finite.
The class of multi-EGS groups is a generalisation of the well-known Grigorchuk-Gupta-Sidki (GGS-)groups. Here we classify branch multi-EGS groups with the congruence subgroup property and determine the profinite completion of all branch multi-EGS groups. Additionally our results show that branch multi-EGS groups are just infinite.
The article deals with profinite groups in which centralizers are virtually procyclic. Suppose that G is a profinite group such that the centralizer of every nontrivial element is virtually torsion-free while the centralizer of every element of infinite order is virtually procyclic. We show that G is either virtually pro-p for some prime p or virtually torsion-free procyclic. The same conclusion holds for profinite groups in which the centralizer of every nontrivial element is virtually procyclic; moreover, if G is not pro-p, then G has finite rank.
We investigate the ability of a free pro-$\CC$ group of infinite rank to abstractly solve abstract embedding problems, and conclude that for some varieties $\CC$, the profinite completion of any order, of a free pro-$\CC$ group of infinite rank, is a free pro-$\CC$ group as well, of the corresponding rank.
We introduce a class $\A$ of finitely generated residually finite accessible groups with some natural restriction on one-ended vertex groups in their JSJ-decompositions. We prove that the profinite completion of groups in $\A$ almost detects its JSJ-decomposition and compute the genus of free products of groups in $\A$.
We prove that the sign of the Euler characteristic of arithmetic groups with CSP is determined by the profinite completion. In contrast, we construct examples showing that this is not true for the Euler characteristic itself and that the sign of the Euler characteristic is not profinite among general residually finite groups of type $F$. Our methods imply similar results for $\ell^2$-torsion as well as a strong profiniteness statement for Novikov-Shubin invariants.
This article explores the interplay between the finite quotients of finitely generated residually finite groups and the concept of amenability. We construct a finitely generated, residually finite, amenable group $A$ and an uncountable family of finitely generated, residually finite non-amenable groups all of which are profinitely isomorphic to $A$. All of these groups are branch groups. Moreover, picking up Grothendieck's problem, the group $A$ embeds in these groups such that the inclusion induces an isomorphism of profinite completions. In addition, we review the concept of uniform amenabil…
The structure of finite and locally finite groups in which every element has prime power order (CP-groups) is well known. In this paper we note that the combination of our earlier results with the available information on the structure of finite CP-groups yields a detailed description of profinite groups with that property. Then we deal with two generalizations of profinite CP-groups. Theorem 1.2. A profinite group G is virtually pro-p for some prime p if and only if for each nontrivial x in G there is a prime p (depending on x) such that the centralizer of x is virtually pro-p. Theorem 1.3. L…
We study the structure of profinite polyadic groups and we prove that a polyadic topological group $(G, f)$ is profinite, if and only if, it is compact, Hausdorff, totally disconnected. More generally, for a pseudo-variety (or a formation) of finite groups $\mathfrak{X}$, we define the class of $\mathfrak{X}$-polyadic groups, and we show that a polyadic group $(G, f)$ is pro-$\mathfrak{X}$, if and only if, it is compact, Hausdorff, totally disconnected and for every open congruence $R$, the quotient $(G/R, f_R)$ is $\mathfrak{X}$-polyadic.
We introduce various probablistic finiteness conditions for profinite groups related to positive finite generation (PFG). We investigate completed group rings which are PFG as modules, and use this to answer a question of Kionke and the second author on positively finitely related groups. Using the theory of projective covers, we define and characterise a probabilistic version of the $\mathrm{FP}_n$ property for profinite groups, called $\mathrm{PFP}_n$. Finally, we prove how these conditions are related to previously defined finiteness conditions and each other.
A group word $w$ is said to be strongly concise in a class $\mathscr C$ of profinite groups if, for any group $G$ in $\mathscr C$, either $w$ takes at least continuum values in $G$ or the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ is finite. It is conjectured that all words are strongly concise in the class of all profinite groups. Earlier Detomi, Klopsch, and Shumyatsky proved this conjecture for multilinear commutator words, as well as for some other particular words. They also proved that every group word is strongly concise in the class of nilpotent profinite groups. In the present paper we prove that for any…
In this article we study the extent to which an $n$-dimensional compact flat manifold with the cyclic holonomy group of square-free order may be distinguished by the finite quotients of its fundamental group. In particular, we display a formula for the cardinality of profinite genus of the fundamental group of an $n$-dimensional compact flat manifold with the cyclic holonomy group of square-free order.
A countably based profinite group can be naturally seen as a metric space with respect to a given filtration, and thus, it has a well defined Hausdorff dimension function. Barnea and Shalev found a group theoretical expression for the Hausdorff dimension of the closed subgroups of a profinite group $G$, opening, in this way, a bunch of possibilities to explore. In this paper we generalize Barnea's and Shalev's result to arbitrary closed subsets of $G$.